Vucic to Resign September 27, Brnabic Takes Over
If Aleksandar Vucic actually resigns as president on September 27, Ana Brnabic would temporarily take over as head of state, and snap elections must be called and held by the end of December.
Ana Brnabic would take over as head of state, for a maximum of three months, if Aleksandar Vucic actually submits his announced resignation as President of the Republic on September 27. The Law on the President provides that in that case, the president is replaced by the speaker of the National Assembly, a post Brnabic already holds.
Srpske vesti previously reported on the announcement of a new resignation date, when Vucic first mentioned September 27 as the day he leaves the Presidency. Under the Law on the President, snap presidential elections are called by the speaker of the National Assembly, so that the vote is held no later than three months after the president’s term ends, and before the expiration of the term for which the president was elected.
When would people vote
The law sets a fixed window between calling the election and the vote itself: no less than 30 and no more than 60 days, with the vote required to fall on a non-working day. Since presidential elections in Serbia are traditionally held on Sundays, that arithmetic narrows down the range of possible dates.
Danas names November 1 as the earliest possible voting date. The same report cites two different end points: it places the last Sunday on which the election could still be held within the three month legal deadline at December 20, while naming December 26, the Saturday that is the final day before the deadline expires, as the absolute limit. The gap between the two dates comes from the fact that December 26 would be the last possible day overall, while December 20 would be the last Sunday within that window, since voting has to fall on a non-working day.
Three offices in one biography
If the handover does happen, Brnabic would combine three of the country’s highest offices within a matter of months. She was prime minister, she is now speaker of the National Assembly, and as acting head of state she would also become president of the Republic. Under Article 17 of the Law on the President, the acting president represents Serbia at home and abroad, receives the credentials of foreign diplomats, promulgates laws by decree, calls elections for the National Assembly, proposes a candidate for prime minister to the Assembly and commands the Army of Serbia.
Two women have held the role on a temporary basis before Brnabic. Natasa Micic served as acting president from December 29, 2002, to February 4, 2004, after Milan Milutinovic’s term expired. Slavica Djukic Dejanovic held the same post for a much shorter stretch, from April 5 to May 31, 2012, after then President Boris Tadic resigned.
Elections overlapping with a parliamentary race
The president’s resignation would not be the only election underway. Snap parliamentary elections are already scheduled for October 25, and the filing of candidate lists is in progress: the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) filed its list first, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) list came in second, while the Students’ List will carry ballot number three.
SNS president Milos Vucevic has announced that, should the party and its coalition win that election, the candidate for prime minister would be Vucic himself.
“If SNS and our coalition win, we will nominate Vucic for prime minister. If citizens decide this policy is the best one for Serbia, it is a natural choice for us that Aleksandar Vucic be prime minister. I found out yesterday that he is thinking about it,” Vucevic said on a television station.
On a possible candidate for President of Serbia, Vucevic was not equally specific. That leaves open the question of who would run in the presidential election on behalf of SNS and the coalition around the party, an election that, by law, would be called by Ana Brnabic herself, while she would simultaneously sit on the other side of that same race as acting president.
